25/07/2005

Lottery Fund helps aid WWII commemorations

The crucial roles played by Northern Ireland communities during World War II are to be remembered thanks to grants awarded by the Big Lottery Fund today.

The largest of the National Lottery Good Cause Distributors has awarded grants totalling £521,071 to 69 projects under the Home Front Recall Programme.

The grants will be used to stage a variety of activities including a parachute display and poppy drop, and an exhibition of WWII-related paintings produced by older people.

One of the other projects awarded funding is the Wartime Living History Association which received £19,303 to organise a WWII battlefield recreation at a tented encampment on the weekend of 17th and 18th of September.

Stephen Templeton, chairman of the association, said: “We have recreationists from all over Ireland and from England coming to what we call a living history exhibition.

“The grant from the Big Lottery Fund has made all the difference to us because without this grant we could not have covered the expenses of the re-enactors who are coming and we may have had to charge a cover price of up to £15 per person.”

Big Lottery Fund NI Board Member Breidge Gadd, said: "For 18 months now the Big Lottery Fund has been funding schemes to help ensure that the lessons of the Second World War and the sacrifices made by the wartime generation are not forgotten.

"The Heroes Return and Home Front Recall schemes have been pivotal elements of our Veterans Reunited programme, which also included the Their Past Your Future strand aimed directly at schools.”

(MB/SP)

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